Bob Stoops hates underdogs

Boise State's Statue of Liberty play made it to the finals of ESPN's recent Greatest Highlight competition, much to the dismay of Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops.

Stoops thought that ESPN.com voters might have overvalued the wild ending of the Oklahoma-Boise State 2007 Fiesta Bowl as the second-greatest television highlight of all time. While Stoops termed the Broncos' Statue of Liberty surprise as "a heck of a highlight," he had a couple of other personal favorites.

What exactly were his personal favorites? We assume they were Oklahoma's 79-10 win over North Texas, the U.S. Army's victory over Native Americans, and Goliath beating David.

Big 12 Roundup [ESPN.com]

Boise State spring football kicks off today

Boise State returns to the field today for the first time in 2008 as spring practice gets underway. The Broncos will have 15 practices over the next month (taking a week off for spring break), and there will be three scrimmages planned that are open to the public. Here are the scrimmage dates:

1. March 21 (3:30 Bronco Stadium)
2. April 4 (3:30 TBA)
3. April 11 (6:00 Bronco Stadium)

Last week, we listed several questions we thought would need answering over the course of spring practice, so we hope that the Broncos have some productive sessions. Chadd Cripe will be covering the practices on his Boise Beat blog, while OBNUG will be trying to figure out a way to sneak in.

The Statesman ran a good spring ball primer on Sunday, but no Boise State news would be complete without OBNUG's opinion. Thusly, our highlights of the feature:

• "Practicing the no-huddle." Can we hope to see this during the regular season?
• "Great teams are built in practice." This just in: Utah State cancels spring practice.
• "Veterans Austin Pettis and Titus Young." Are we sure "veterans" is the right word?
• "A physical defense." We will gladly accept that.
• "Garcia Day to cornerback." Inevitable.
• "Thomas Byrd as starting center." Fine by us.

BSU football filling in the blanks [Idaho Statesman]

Bold predictions for the week ahead

Spring is here! And with it, football! We couldn't be more excited about the football. And unless it rains on our truck that we just washed, we couldn't be more excited about the spring.

Without further ado, here is what we see happening in the next few days.

• After the success of Ryan Clady's mall autograph session on Saturday, the Ann Taylor store will try to capitalize with its own Boise State football celebrity appearance. Sadly, punter Brad Elkin proves to be much less of a draw.
  
• On the first day of spring football, the Boise State coaches name their starting quarterback: Ryan Dinwiddie, who was just granted college eligibility for eternity!
  
• OBNUG will try to sneak in to watch spring practice only to be kicked out when it is decided that press passes made in Publisher and printed out on a home computer do not actually make one a member of the press. OBNUG will retaliate with a childish post about campus security.

WIR: Godspeed, spring football

Week in review (WIR) can't wait for the start of spring football on Monday. Now OBNUG can finally stop making up news stories.

• Fiesta Bowl still a good highlight.
• Clady makes millions at Pro Day.
• Anyone but Idaho State!
• No Kyle Wilson this spring.
• NFL mock draft minus objectivity.
• Fresno fans keeping it civil.
• OBNUG ranks the schedule.
• BSU basketball pulls a Hawaii Bowl.
• NCAA cover athlete not a Bronco.
• Spring practice! Thank goodness you're here.

Have a great weekend, Bronco fans. Looking forward to Monday!

An open letter to spring football

Dear spring football,

Boy are we glad you're here.

This offseason has been a long one for us considering the way last year ended. Plus, we had to deal with the Jeremy Childs suspension, players turning pro, injuries to David Shields and Kyle Wilson, and Fresno State being the WAC favorite despite their being Fresno State.

You couldn't have come at a better time, and we can't wait to have the Broncos back on the practice field. We're glad to have something to talk about besides Jeb Putzier's NFL career.

There are a lot of intriguing topics with this 2008 Bronco squad, and we hope that you will help clear up some of our questions. Or at least make the list shorter.

• Who will be the starting quarterback?
• Is Doug Martin the future? And is the future now?
• Who would win a battle of strengths between Byron Hout and Daron Mackey?
• Will Childs and Wilson be missed?
• Who is going to replace the linemen who graduated?
• Will the Vinny Perretta veer option offense that we scrawled on a napkin and mailed to coach Chris Peterson be on the practice sched?
• Did Austin Pettis get any faster?
• Did Jeron Johnson get any more durable?
• What is the deal with that Ian Johnson guy?

We'll be checking in as often as we can to see how things are going. Hopefully, you can give us some answers to these questions before we start making up conclusions on our own.

Oh, and one last thing. Can you stay around until late June? We can't stand the thought of four months without football.

Sincerely,

OBNUG team

Tharp not on the cover of NCAA 09

The frantic Fiesta Bowl finish propelled BSU QB Jared Zabransky onto the cover of NCAA Football 08. Beating Utah State by 56 did not do the same for Taylor Tharp.

Darren McFadden will grace the cover of EA Sports' NCAA Football 09, which will be released this summer. The XBox 360 version will have the former Arkansas RB as its featured athlete, but the PS3, PS2, and PSP will each have their own cover athlete.

Here is a look at some features:

NCAA Football 09 will unveil the all-new Break Away Animation Engine which allows gamers to break in and out of moves giving the user more direct control as well as instant influence and responsiveness on the field. At its core, NCAA Football 09 will focus on wide-open collegiate style gameplay featuring unique animations that you will only find on college football Saturdays. This style of gameplay will allow agile backs like McFadden to show off their break out speed and maneuverability in-game.

I guess "Tharp" and "breakaway" aren't often used in the same sentence.

Buster Bronco is in the running for a mascot cover for the Wii version. Vote here.

NCAA Football 09 to have platform-specific covers [Pasta Padre]

Bronco basketball falls to Utah State

The BSU men's basketball team fell at home to Utah State last night in a game that could have clinched the WAC title outright for the Broncos. The 19-point loss could end up costing BSU a high seed in next week's conference tournament.

But the most disappointing thing about the loss was that there were 10,000 anxious Bronco fans on hand to watch it happen, many of whom cannot get off this bandwagon fast enough (Brian Murphy first!).

There is a huge difference between igniting a fan base and throwing up back-to-back double-digit losses at home to end the regular season.

Just ask the disgruntled masses that filed out of Taco Bell Arena as the final minutes ticked away, leaving just the Aggie faithful to serenade the victors.

A chance squandered.

A moment not seized.

It should sting. Bad.

We at OBNUG are much less fickle when it comes to Bronco athletics. Sure, the men's basketball team let us down last night, and yes, the whole thing brought back memories of the Hawaii Bowl. But a loss in a big game is not going to affect how much we like the Broncos' basketball team. We liked them before, and we don't like them any less now.

The conference tournament will be fun to watch, and we'll try to have some coverage of it next. week. Let's hope at least a few people are still on the bandwagon.

'Sad, sad night' for Boise State men... [Idaho Statesman]

Photo courtesy Idaho Statesman.